Somewhere Deep In The Jungle.
by Abforth
Summary: Ginny and Harry get a little lost in the jungle - killer tigers, crazy monkeys and only 1 tent to share, leaves them slightly stressed - but is it merely a misread map that got them lost? Or is something more sinister afoot?
1. Somewhere Deep In the Jungle

Somewhere Deep in the Jungle....  
  
*Disclaimer - This is not mine, it's J K Rowling's!*

**Chapter 1**

  
**3 days before Valentines Day…******

"I…can not… believe this." 

"You said already."  

"Well I'm saying it again." she snapped back.  
  


There was a long pause of silence as each member of the 2-man team considered the other through narrowed eyes.  
  


"You know this is your fault, right?" she said levelly.  
  


"Yes, let's go over this again. I may not have got it the first thousand times how your stupidity IS MY FAULT!" he answered tersely. Sighing to himself, he thought how this conversation just wasn't any more interesting than it had been an hour ago. He continued to march on in the lead, pushing through bushes and over hanging vines, wand in hand.  
  


"Well if you hadn't...Don't you make faces at me!" she cried.

Harry wondered apprehensively how had she known that he was making faces, he turned around to face Ginny, wiping back his hair from his face, revealing his scar, and feigned an innocent smile.    
  


"Faces? Who was making faces?" he said grinning, which caused her to narrow her eyes at him.  
  


"Come on, I would like to get to this party in time. Hand over the map - I'll lead." She sounded like Mrs. Weasley, Harry mused.  
  


"You will not! It was your reading skills that got us lost in the first place!" he replied curtly. Harry pushed in front of her holding on to the map. She made an indignant noise but followed him.  
  


They continued walking for about an hour, Ginny glaring at the back of his head wishing that he'd trip over a buttress root and fall face first into monkey dung - no, no even better on to a huge sleeping tiger - or a poisonous snake - wait that one wouldn't work, he'd just talk his way out of it - probably send it after her. How about a pit of poisonous scorpions.... Her thoughts continued this way for a quite a while - in fact it was all she could do to put one foot in front of the other. Her feet were killing her - but she certainly wasn't going to tell Harry that. Hell no; a pit of poisonous snakes wouldn't make her suggest that they stop and camp.  
  


Meanwhile, Harry was trying to figure out where the heck they were exactly. 

This all started about a week ago when they'd both received the following by owl;  

_You are cordially invited to the following celebration:_

_'A Major Magical Valentine's Day.'___

_In the County of __Amazonas__, __Brazil__._

_Starting February 14th until February 19th.___

_To dance, eat and celebrate the fall of a dark wizard with the whole magical community. _

_Please be prepared to arrive one day early and leave one day late,_

_ Further instructions will be given on RSVP._

Well what self respecting wizard could refuse!? Free drink, food, and music, plenty of young good-looking witches. It would have been a great party. No – It _will be a brilliant party, thought Harry as he started to berate himself for thinking that they'd never reach civilization. _

The party was due to start in three days somewhere in the Amazon basin. Ginny and he had been asked to set up wards and protection spells ready for when all the guests started to arrive in two days. The party itself had been set up by the European Community of the Magical World, which had been set up after the second (and what Harry hoped was the last) defeat of Voldermort. After a lot of hard work and sacrifice, Voldermort had been overturned. How it had come about was only known to select few, Harry included, but he pushed away unwanted images that tried to make themselves known. The war had been over almost a year now and, needless to say, the world had become a lot brighter since. Harry himself was considering taking up professional Quidditch; he'd been an auror of sorts in the war but now it was over he wasn't really sure what to do with himself. 

Ginny, on the other hand, had plenty to do – she had a natural empathy with animals and plants; she'd tamed dragons, ridden unicorns and countless other unimaginable occurrences. She and Herimone had worked tirelessly through out the war designing illusions, creating diversions and working to gather information. The combination of Ginny's power and creativeness and Herimone's intelligence had proved amazing.  

Others had been involved in their team of course: Harry himself, Neville Longbottom, Susan Bones, and Charlie Weasley at one point. Ron was usually leading battles and running troops. He nearly always took their ideas and applied them to the current war effort. Without Ron their ideas would have been nothing, though, and without them, Harry wondered if Ron would have been still alive. The number of times they'd saved his life using their ideas when things hadn't gone to plan was uncountable.

Sirius had once said that the team was like a brick; what good was a brick if you couldn't build? If you didn't have that brick – how would you build sufficient shelter?

The war had certainly changed them all - the Weasleys in particular, when Charlie had been killed. Ron had mellowed, the twins lost some of their appetite for pranks, Percy seemed to spend as much time as possible away from work to be with his family, Bill always looked lonely when the family was together, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley always looked tired. 

It hadn't seemed to affect Ginny at all; at his funeral she stood staring at his coffin, but otherwise she smiled, received condolences, and laughed at jokes. Her reaction had stunned people, and driven a wedge between her and Ron. Harry didn't think it was because she was heartless. He thought that maybe she couldn't accept that Charlie was dead, that it hurt too much. She certainly wasn't as happy and carefree as she used to be, but how could anyone remain happy and carefree as people you knew were dying every day? 

Harry wondered if he himself had changed. He certainly felt older and wiser. Without Sirius and Remus, Harry knew he never have made it through the war sane. Many a time Sirius and he had had gotten very drunk and ended up fighting as way to relieve anger and frustration. Harry pulled himself out of his reverie when he was struck by a thought.

"Ginny – Why don't you know where we are?" He asked turning to her.

"Don't know." She answered. Studying her face, he realized that she was uncomfortable with this thought. "I can't get a sense – when we Apparated here I felt restricted, like someone was blocking me. But I think it may be just because the forest doesn't know me, the trees are different." She bit her lip, and rubbed her temple.

"Maybe we should stay on guard. It's possible we didn't Apparate wrong. Maybe we were brought here on purpose."

"The war was over a year ago. Why would any one bother to attack you now?" said Ginny.

"That's the most stupid comment I ever heard. I can think of plenty of reasons. What makes you think they're after just me anyway?" he answered, a little more sharply than intended. Brown eyes looked at him questioningly, 

"Sorry, my brain's a little overloaded and tired at the moment," she answered, "Apparently I'm not the only tired and cranky one though." She brought her hand up to wipe away stray hair from her face, rubbing her temples again. 

'Are you all right?' he asked, concerned

'It might be the humidity but I have a headache. If we can find some feverfew or rosemary, I'll be fine.' She smiled at him tiredly. Now Harry was concerned, so he suggested that they stop and camp. He set up the only tent they had, as Herimone had taken Ginny's with her, and sat down to eat some dry bread and pumpkin juice next to a warm fire. After searching for 30 minutes for something for Ginny's headache they resigned themselves to the fact that it was getting too dark.

The night drew in quickly; in fact Harry was quite surprised at how fast darkness fell. He went into the tent to change while it was relatively light, took 5 minutes at the most to change, and reappeared to find complete darkness. He hadn't thought the loss of light would have made much difference as the canopy of leaves blocked out most sunlight anyway, but he had been wrong. 

It was amazing how dark it was. What had Ginny said? _It's__ as black as night...and all that bloody noise. For once he'd have to agree with her. It was never quiet in the forest - the leaves rustled, monkeys hollered, birds screeched.  Harry noted that the fire was going out again. It was still quite humid and the damp air and ground made it near impossible to keep a fire going. _

  
Harry gazed into the darkness wondering what was taking Ginny so long - what was she doing in there? 

Harry kicked at the ground and wondered for the hundredth time how exactly they'd ended up getting lost. 

He briefly wondered if Ron had swapped the Apparition details because he'd insisted that Harry and Ginny Apparate together, leaving him to Apparate with Herimone. At the time Harry had thought it was just that Ron had wanted to be with Herimone, which had made him curious as Ron would only have had a minute (if that), alone with Herimone. It just hadn't seemed right at the time to go to all the trouble of getting them to Apparate together. 

But if he had swapped them, it didn't seem like a very funny prank. It also didn't seem like something Ron would do. Ok, maybe he'd have them de-Apparate over a river or into a tree or something, but not some random spot in the middle of nowhere. Not with everything that had happened with the war.

Harry lifted his wand and shot a phoenix in to the sky. He was worried about this. It didn't seem right – his Auror senses screamed that something wasn't right. But he also had to consider that maybe they just Apparated wrong. They'd both been bickering at each other at the time. 

He heard Ginny emerge, and turned to see her looking at her watch. 

"You sent a phoenix?" she asked.

"Yes," he answered. "How are you feeling?"

"Better now that I've eaten and have something cooler on." She said indicating her strap top, shorts, and loose robe open over the top, then continuing, "This heat is killing me. I was expecting to Apparate into a nice magically temperature-controlled area in the middle of he forest.' 

"You and me both," he replied.

"Harry, what are you doing?" she inquired  
  


Harry appeared to be squishing bugs continuously and at the moment was making strange flapping motions in the air.  
  


"Well, I'm not sure, but apparently I'm every bug's dinner within a mile of here," he replied.

"Well, aren't you using bug repellent? It was on the instructions." she asked, concerned.  
  


"Of course." Harry pulled out a flask from his bag and showed it to Ginny.  
  


"Uhhh - Why's it blue?" she said cautiously.  
  


"Isn't it supposed to be?"  
  


"No - It's supposed to be green." 

He looked at her like she'd gone mad.  "But Ron..."  
  


"Ron," she said laughing. Ginny pulled out her bug repellent from her bag and handed it to him, "Here, use mine." 

"That idiot! This means I have a prank to pull when I see him next," he said cheerfully.

"How about a spell that means he has to stay two foot away from Herimone or something?" she questioned

"That's mean…" he said grinning. "I like it."

"On the other hand though – both Ron and Herimone are likely to beat us to a bloody pulp." 

"Ahh. Not good," he said a little deflated. "Then again, it means they'd admit that they were going out." 

"Let's let them have some fun while they can – they deserve some," she said seriously.

"It's more fun watching them sneak around and making life awkward anyway. I can't wait till they slip up."

"Harry!" Ginny said, shocked.

"What?" he said smiling innocently. She smiled back and Harry felt his heart jump. She chuckled lightly and shook her head.

"You haven't given them a minutes peace have you?" she said.

"I've given them a whole five minutes peace before now, I'll have you know," he said pretending to be insulted. She laughed and Harry realized how rare a sound that actually was. 

"Come on, let's get some rest," she said, standing up.

They made their way into the tent and both feel into a deep sleep, unaware of the noisy forest amongst protection and soundless spells.


	2. Things Get Worse

**Somewhere Deep In The Jungle**

**Chapter Two**

**Things Get Worse.**

**That Night.******

During the night, Harry got up from bed to check the protective spells he placed around the tent. The feeling that they were in danger wouldn't leave him, it kept nagging him so that eventually he had decided to do a quick security check.

Ginny slept on, exhausted from the long day, but outside the tent Harry found a hive of activity continuing. Standing outside the door of their tent and listening carefully to the activity of the night, periodically swatting away bugs, Harry caught a conversation continuing in a bush. 

  
 "You know, I knows sssomeone who sssayss their clutch brother was killed by Not-Sso-Nice-Sssnake-Friend," said one voice.

 "What? _The Not-Sso-Nice-Sssnake-Friend," said the second voice. _

  
"Yep. He sssaysss Not-Sso-Nice-Sssnake-Friend isss dead," replied the first voice mysteriously.

 "Everyone knowsss Not-Sso-Nice-Sssnake-Friend isss dead..." answered the second voice.  
  


 "Do not!" cried the first voice disbelievingly.  
  


"Yesss ay do. Nice-Sssnake-Friend in 'ere killed him.Didn't 'e" said the second voice._  
  
_

 "You two better be watching for evil. Or elssse," entered a third voice.  
  
****

"Yesss Sssnake Massster," answered two voices simultaneously. _  
  
_

"Sssee what you gone an done," hissed the first voice.

 "Me? You're on my ssside on the tent!" cried the second voice angrily.

  
Harry heard the first voice mumble something, and a very long, large snake slithered past his foot. He realised that the snakes were protecting him and, smiling made his way back to bed.

**Day Two – Approximately 9:00 am **

Harry woke up in the darkness of the tent, wondering what had woken him so abruptly. He stretched over in his bed to light the lamp using his wand and turning in his camp bed slowly to avoid falling out, looked at Ginny who was murmuring loudly in her sleep and fighting with her blankets. Harry thought he heard the words 'Charlie, oranges' and 'tree' before Ginny rolled over to far and fell out of her bed with a soft thump.

He heard further muttering from behind the small bed before Ginny's head re-appeared, she looked slightly dazed at first, but as her vision became more focused she noticed Harry looking at her with amusement.

"Ouch," she said flatly, to which Harry burst out laughing. Ginny sighed and shock her head as Harry continued to laugh loudly in his bed, but a small smile played across her lips as she observed him. 

She picked up a pillow from the floor and threw it at Harry, then started to drag herself towards the small bathroom. She heard the pillow hit its target full force ending Harry's laughter as catching the pillow caused Harry to over balance and fall out of his camp bed, much to Ginny's amusement. 

"Good Morning, Harry," she said loudly going in to the bathroom. As she shut the door something soft thumped against it, which Ginny suspiciously thought was a pillow. 

* * *

Harry and Ginny where ready to leave at 10 : 00 am; after having argued over how long Ginny took in the bathroom, what they were going to have for breakfast and where they had left the map the previous evening. 

Having briefly studied the map, both agreed that they would continue searching for a river so that they could follow it up stream and hopefully come across any sort of human life. 

So they started to move slowly through the dense jungle, bags strapped to their backs, wand in one hand and hacking knife in the other, cutting away foliage.  

The heat made the task of moving along seem more tiresome and longer than it actually was, so that all their efforts went into continuing forward and very little conversation was possible. The smell of rotting debris on the forest floor made it all the more unbearable and the humidity caused the air itself to seem thick and heavy. Their clothes stuck to them and seemed restrictive, and with only one bottle of bug repellent between them for an indefinite amount of time, rationing had to be employed. So while they had a relatively bug free morning, the afternoon was an all-you-can-eat buffet. 

Ginny was starting to feel no better then yesterday, in fact she felt a little worse, after a deep sleep followed by nightmares she was feeling emotionally drained as well as physically. She craved her own warm bed after a long hot, steamy, bubbly, herb-scented bath. She didn't think that was too much to ask for. Her muscles ached with every simple movement, her head was pounding, the heat was suffocating her, and even with a lightening charm, the bag strapped to her back weighed the same as a small rhinoceros.

But what annoyed Ginny most of all was that every little scrape or bang felt so much worse just because she was feeling a little under the weather and little movements seemed to require supreme effort. So while continuing to march on behind Harry, ignoring her protesting body, the only thing that kept her moving was the thought that just because the war was over she wasn't going to go soft. She didn't pay much attention to her surroundings, she kept her eyes fixed on her target – Harry, and trundled along unconsciously. 

Which was probably why she didn't see the buttress root.

She flew forward and grabbed hold of a dangling vine. While this reduced her speed toward the ground, it didn't, unfortunately, stop it. She ended up falling face first into a pile of leaves and what ever else was on the canopy floor, the contents of which she did not want to know. 

She gave a groan as the impact of the floor vibrated through her body, she rolled over and stared up at the canopy of leaves. Harry's head entered her field of vision above her, but instead of laughing, he looked worried as he gazed down at her.

"Hi," she croaked, he kept his face neutral as reached down and put the back of his hand on her forehead. He moved away and Ginny heard him curse as he fought with his pack, she heard a zip go and then something heavy clank on to the floor next to her. She didn't have the energy to get up and see what he was doing so it was a few minutes before he returned into her view and started to undo the straps on her bag.

"What are you doing?" she asked quietly.

"Can you sit up?" he asked frowning at her.

"Of course, just give me a few minutes." She said closing her eyes. 

"Gin…" he muttered, "You look like Death." 

"I try," she said sarcastically.

"I'm serious," he said.

"Oh please, stop." she replied flatly.

"If we make camp, you can lay down for a bit – do we have any medical supplies?" he said ignoring her comment.

"Yes, there's some in my bag, but-" 

"We can't camp here, we'll find somewhere where the grounds more even. I can't believe you didn't say you were feeling ill! Can you make it to a camp? Get up." he rattled off so quickly that Ginny had trouble following. 

"What?" she asked stupidly

"Do you want me to carry you?" he asked more slowly. 

"Of course not! I'm not dying!" she said defensibly. The look that he gave her said he thought otherwise. 

"Well then, get up." He reasoned. She gave him a dirty look before concentrating her effort on sitting up, she heaved herself up – much to her dismay she felt the earth start to spin and then Harry's arms around her steadying her. "All right, I've got you," he said softly.

She tried to sit down again, but he fought with her and made her stay on her feet; the result of which was Ginny holding on tightly to Harry for support.

"Okay, just lean against this tree, I'll see if we have a stretcher." He rested her against a tree and started searching for a stretcher, eventually he found one in Ginny's bag and was able to lie her down. 

"I'm all right." She said, laying back. "Just dizzy." 

He levitated the stretcher above the ground, at waist height and leaned over Ginny. To his eyes, she was deathly white, she had a temperature and she was laying back with her eyes shut, breathing lightly. He felt his heart clench; she wasn't at all well. They were hundreds of miles from anywhere, he had no idea what was wrong with her, and even scarier – he had no idea what to do about it. 

**Author's note – Thanks you to Amy for her beta services and to anyone who reviewed my last chapter! Much appreciated! And to Aranel for making me write chapter 2! Anyone who has ever been to the rainforest, leave a review please and help me make my fic more accurate!!  **


	3. When the going get's tough

**Somewhere Deep In The Jungle…**

**Chapter 3**

**When the going get's tough…**

**Night Five – approximately 1am.**

Harry poked at the campfire in the vain hope that the light might last a bit longer, he needed firewood but could not leave Ginny's side, for fear of what was lurking in the forest. He had summoned all the firewood in the area, using a handy spell, but now there was none left (that wasn't damp) and he needed light.

Choosing a clean T-shirt from his rucksack, he started tearing it in to two, dropping both halves into a large saucepan of water, which was slowly heating over the low fire. Next to him, lying unconscious was Ginny, muttering non-sense and shifting about in a fever, looking deathly pale. He started carefully attending her again, reaching for a piece of T-shirt, and swearing loudly when the water burned his hand. 

Her skin was burning, and while wiping her face and neck gently, he pulled the thermometer out of her mouth, attempting to read it by the light of the small campfire. 

It read;

'Too Hot!! Seek medical assistance immediately!' 

Dropping the thermometer hastily in to his bag, he started to rip Ginny's robes off her in a desperate bid to cool her down. When she was in only her underwear, he picked her up easily in his arms and ran into the open tent, into the small bathroom. He gently laid her on the floor of the shower and switched it onto cold. Without any thought of his own robes getting wet, he sat under the freezing water, stroking tendrils of hair out of her face and wiping her forehead.  

When she seemed to have cooled considerably, he took her back to the stretcher and threw his favourite thick blanket over her, to stop her temperature dropping too much. He replaced the thermometer back in her mouth, just as a small brown snake with strange makings on its head slithered up casually. 

Harry knew the snakes name was Gaboon and that it was running a sort of security patrol around Harry's hastily built camp. A network of snakes seemed to be building through out the jungle, as word stretched of Harry's ability to speak to the scaly creatures. Which Harry discovered could work to his advantage - Gaboon informed him that there was a lot of noise in the North of the jungle, although their perceptions of distances were obviously quite different, Harry was hoping that once Ginny was in better health, that they go towards it in the hope of finding civilisation.

But the way Ginny's health was looking, that was not going to be anytime soon, if at all. Harry tucked Ginny up in the blankets, and folded another to sit on to watch her through the rest of the night, but he didn't make himself too comfortable, in the fear that he might fall asleep. He reached under the blankets for Ginny's hand and held on to it, as if holding on to her hand tightly might keep her alive. 

He rested his forehead on the blanket, he been attending her constantly for more than several hours, days in fact. He tiredly reached for the thermometer in her mouth; he let out a sigh of relief when he read 'Normal Temperature.' He relaxed next to her bed, letting himself feel the familiar torment of lack of sleep. He looked at her calm face, the gentle in takes of breath and felt a little respite of fear.

Harry wasn't sure how long he sat staring at her, his eyes tracing the familiar freckles, fiery hair and small nose that made up Ginny Weasley.

'Ron's little sister, your best friend's little sister' he kept repeating to himself, almost like a mantra, in an attempt to bury feelings he thought he had no right to have. Nevertheless, he came to wonder what his life would be like without her, certainly a lot quieter he mused smiling, but not nearly as pleasant. He wondered who could want to hurt such a giving person – powerful, yes – but so kind-hearted. His thoughts turned very dark as anger and adrenaline rushed through him at the thought of someone hurting Ginny, the idea that someone could make Ginny ill, tormenting him and feeling of helplessness returned full force.

But while his thoughts span out of control, his body demanded rest and before he knew it, he was asleep.

* * *

**Day ****Six – 12:22 pm******

Harry felt a hand brush through his hair gently, and a smile tugged at his lips. He was quite content to lay there resting, his body waking slowly from it's deep sleep but the sound of running water and the heavy patter of rain on his head roused him. He opened his eyes and blinked, pushes his glasses up his nose to discover that he'd been laying for sometime on Ginny's stomach. He looked into her tired brown eyes, and the smile that had been tugging at his lip grew at seeing her awake.

"Ginny," he said gently, "How are you feeling?" 

"Like I ran a marathon," she said, her voice cracking with disuse. Chuckling he looked up through the gap in the canvas, and using his wand stopped the heavy rain from falling on them. He pottered around happily tidying up and drying things off, the combination of rest and the health of Ginny lightening his mood significantly. Although on some level he recognised that he had failed her slightly by falling asleep, and he also knew that if he had ever got his hands on the culprits of her illness he'd do some serious damage. 

 It was almost three days since she had fallen ill and he realised that the week long celebrations would have started by now. He thought about sending another signal in to the sky to alert the old members of the Order of Phoenix to his presence, but if his gut feeling was right and someone was out to get them… Would a signal lead them straight to them? 

Over the next day, Ginny's health returned rapidly, surprising Harry and leaving him a little wary. He kept waiting for her to keel over, resulting in him constantly watching her like a hawk, much to her eternal annoyance. 

"If someone is after us, we should start walking," she argued.

"Ginny, less than twenty four hours ago you were on your death bed!" he said, voice rising, "Do you seriously think I'm going to just let you work yourself to death again?" 

"I'm fine! It was some sort of spell or potion that has worn off, and we should keep moving!" she said voice rising too.

He couldn't argue with that train of thought, but nevertheless, he was not giving up that easily. He was starting to wonder what happened to the quiet passive Ginny from yesterday, but was silently enjoying sparring with her again.  

"Ginny, look…" but he was interrupted, by the arrival of a very large snake. As they'd argued they had unconsciously started moving towards each other, and the sudden appearance of the snake next to her, caused Ginny to jump slightly and clutch hold of Harry's arm.

"Sssomething wrong?" asked the snake, raising it's head level with Harry's.

"No," answered Harry, moving in front of a hypnotised Ginny.

"Sssnake friend'sss mate isss well again?" asked the snake, indicating Ginny with a nod of its head. 

"Mate? Oh yesss," said Harry, a grin spreading across his face, "Ssshe'sss fine thank you. Wasss there anything else?"

"Sssnake friend make lot'sss of noise,"

"Oh, we were just having a minor disssagreement," answered Harry, slightly embarrassed that they had been over heard, "but we're fine thanks."

"Ssstrange human's," said the snake, shaking its head and sliding away with a quick nod at Ginny.

Harry chuckled and Ginny stood there looking shocked, "Did that snake just nod at me?"

"Erm, yes" said Harry.

"What did it say?"

"Oh it just wanted to know if we were alright,"

"What? Why?" she asked watching Harry.

"Well it heard a lot of noise from someone that should be taking it easy," said Harry, raising an eyebrow.

"Why would you need to be taking it easy?" she countered, causing him to shot her a disapproving look.

Eventually they settled on starting off tomorrow if Ginny hadn't shown anymore signs of illness. And Ginny didn't show any signs of getting worse. 

*Disclaimer - It's not mine, Never will be!*


	4. Pysgodon

**Somewhere Deep In The Jungle**

**Chapter 4**

**Pysgodon******

**Day ****Seven – 8 am******

The next morning the sun pooled into the clearing through the trees, and Ginny couldn't help smiling as it warmed her face. She savoured the feel, as she knew it wouldn't be long before she'd be back to hiding under the dark canopy and the only opportunities she'd have for seeing the sun, would be when it was baking hot directly above. And it was probable that by the time they found another clearing the sun would have caused heavy storm clouds to form in the sky, and lightening would flash and thunder would roar and it would rain.

Not that she minded the rain, she just would have liked to have been out of the damp, moist air for a little while. 

Feeling Harry's eyes on her she looked over to see him watching her intently, a strange expression on his face. 

"What?"  She asked self consciously, but he just smiled in response and carried on standing there, looking intent. She caught his eyes, but wasn't completely sure what she saw there, he maintained eye contact but she eventually looked away a small blush reaching her cheeks. "Shall we go?" she asked shouldering her pack, which was strangely lighter than she remembered.  

In a few strides, Harry crossed the clearing and was next to her. He pushed in to the jungle, leading them along at a gentle pace, quite unlike the beginning of their march. It was almost as if he had become resigned to the reality that they were stuck here, and had decided to enjoy it while he could. 

Whilst he had maintained watching her yesterday for any signs that she was going to roll over and die, today he was scrutinizing her with less diligence and when they paused for lunch, he had that strange expression on his face again. But, he apparently still was convinced she wasn't well because he kept holding back vines and branches for her, or sometimes, helping her over logs or small streams. At first she'd found it annoying, but after she had resigned herself to the fact that, he was just going have to realize that she was okay by himself, she started enjoying the attention.

It was just after lunch that they came across a small River, and looking into the soft running water, Ginny, hot and bothered was half tempted to jump in. It was only Harry's words of wisdom that stopped her.

"I wouldn't step to close to there,"

"What? Why?" she asked curiously.

"I might not know too much about the Jungle – but I do know enough to say that there are probably all kinds of nasty things living in there,"

"Really? Like what?" she queried, looking at the water with more interest. 

He came to stand beside her to look in.

"Well I know that you can have piranha in there…"

"Piranha?"

"Yep, their fish with big teeth," he said thoughtfully, then absently, "strip your flesh in seconds they will," 

"Ew…" she said looking as if she might spot one.

Harry unexpectedly pushed her towards the water, but making sure to keep hold of her shoulders so that he could immediately pull her back. She flew backwards and Harry steadied her as she took a few breathes to calm herself. Harry started laughing,

"I told you not to stand to close!" he said laughing playfully at her expression. 

She elbowed him in the stomach, stopping his laughter,

"That was so mean!" she responded good-humouredly, "You're worse than Fred and George sometimes…"

But before Harry could answer, they heard a loud cracking noise in the distance, followed by a deadly silence.

"What was that?" asked Ginny frozen to the spot. Harry moved first, he swung his bag on to his back and handed Ginny her own, pulling out his wand in the process. He started scanning the trees, like a mad man.

"What...?" started Ginny, but he silenced her with a finger. Then she heard a noise and she wondered if Harry had heard it. It sounded like hundreds of flapping wings and there was a screeching noise that went so high pitched that it hurt her ears.

"Ahhh…" she said, clamping her hands to her ears. She felt Harry's arms around her,

"Ginny, what is it?" he asked, sounding very worried.

"That noise…" she managed, she opened her eyes to see Harry's green eyes staring into her own, but he looked away into the direction of the sound. He suddenly went very white, at his expression, Ginny immediately snapped her head around in the direction of his gaze.

Coming towards them, flying along the river and diving through the tops of the trees where hundreds of Bats. Which in it self would be a site for the middle of the day, but these bats seemed distorted, they where much bigger than normal bats, flying quite low and where screeching loudly. It was the way that they descended on everything with there claws and started tearing, before moving on to the next object, forever searching.

The sight and sound of them made Ginny's blood run cold.

"Run Ginny!" whispered Harry unnecessarily, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her along. 

They crashed through shrub after shrub, the sound of the bats drawing closer and closer, vines snatching at their clothes, and at Ginny's hair. Just as the bats where about to go over their heads, Harry grabbed Ginny and pushed her to the ground between some buttress roots, wrapping his waterproof cloak about them both.

"Keep still," he whispered in her ear, his breath on her neck. 

He held her tightly underneath him, waiting for the noise overhead to move a safe distance away and Ginny wondered if Harry knew quite the effect he was having on her. Because despite the situation, all she seemed to be able to think about was the fact that Harry's arms where around her and that she could feel the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed deeply.

Eventually, he lifted his head up cautiously and peered around. He pulled himself from off Ginny, helping her up but staying low behind the tree. 

It was quiet, which was highly unusual for the jungle. They both waited with bated breath, until in the distance they both heard what they had feared. 

"Did they find them?" yelled one voice.

"No, keeping searching – we want to find her alive!" yelled back another voice, both coming from the direction the bats had come. Neither voice sounded particularly friendly, and Ginny didn't know about Harry, but she certainly didn't want to meet the owners of them.

So they started running swiftly, making sure to stay between the wizards and the bats.

They must have run for at least fifteen minutes before they stopped and listened, waiting for any sound. They could still hear running and yelling in the distance, Ginny put her finger to her lips in a sign for silence and then signed for them to keep on moving forwards. 

Harry nodded his agreement and she grabbed hold of his hand afraid of losing him, as he walked quickly but quietly though undergrowths, disappearing as he slid through bushes.  The land had started to rise swiftly, and Ginny was starting to felt the effects of the combination of a mornings hike, fear and from getting straight out of bed after a near death experience. 

Harry lead them along the flatter areas rather than climbing, he turned to regard Ginny, and squeezing her small hand he gave her quizzical look, which she returned with a tired smile. 

As they stumbled along breathing lightly, Ginny noticed something towards her left through the trees. She pulled at Harry's hand and he stopped obediently. 

"There's some sort of strange pillar or tree over there," said Ginny

They moved over to it, and Ginny had to let go of Harry's hand, much to her disappointment. She ran her hands over the smooth stone; it was probably about the only thing that she could see that wasn't covered in vines. It was a tall cylinder that reached up as high as the tree canopy, it was extremely wide and Ginny couldn't even get her arms to go a quarter of the way around it.

"What do you think it does?" she asked Harry.

"I have no idea," he said looking around nervously, "but let's keep moving,"

Reluctantly, Ginny turned away from it. Harry turned to go, and all her thoughts about the statue went straight out the window when he reached for her hand, entwining their fingers together.


	5. Author's Note

As promised the next chapter! I'd like to say thank you to my reviewers and to say sorry if there are any errors in the last chapter, due to a lack of response from my beta's.  
  
But being the perfectly patient person that I am I couldn't wait for them to check through it before I posted!  
  
I might not get a chapter out for another week yet as I have a few projects that have to be in next week, but as soon as there over I will get on to the next chapter!  
  
Anyway A few thank you's are deserved to -  
  
Galadriel7  
  
Thank you for the wonderful review - you have no idea how good it made me feel! I'm afraid I needed a little encouragement for this chapter as I'm not a very good writer of romance but I love reading it! I'm appointing you my guru on the romance - you tell me whether my chapters need more or less of it! Your review made me so Happy that I cut and pasted it so that every time I feel down about this fic I'm going to read it!  
  
In fact. I'm going to work on the next chapter.  
  
Thank you so much!!!  
  
Arwen-  
  
Did I post fast enough? I don't know any Lupin fics although he is one of my favourite characters. I'm planning on doing a Lily and James fic in the future which should hopefully have lot's of Remus in it. Otherwise have you tried the Were wolf registry site? There is a link to from the Sugar quills site.  
  
Thank you for reviewing!!  
  
Anonymous - thank you to!  
  
Keep Writing, Abforth 


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